The allure the 1960s television band The Monkees still holds nearly 45 years after its show was canceled and the group had the last Top 40 hit of its original run is amazing.

Whatever nerve that band tapped into, it’s still sensitive for the baby boomer crowd that made up most of the sellout crowd of 650 at Musikfest Café in Bethlehem on Monday for the annual oldies Happy Together Tour – in no small part because The Monkees singer/drummer Micky Dolenz was on the bill.

The Monkees' Micky Dolenz on Musikfest Cafe stage for Happy Together Tour.

The crowd greeted Dolenz, the penultimate set of a five-act show, with the night’s biggest cheer, and was simply atwitter during his 25-minute set of Monkees hits. “We got any Monkees fans out there?” he asked to screams. Yes, screams.

Certainly Dolenz deserved some of that. Wearing a black fedora and dark sunglasses throughout the show, he was animated and fun – at 67, he’s still Monkeeing around -- and his singing actually not bad.

His never was a classically great voice, but it was the distinctive sound on The Monkees’ biggest hits – “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” with which he opened his set; the very good “Pleasant Valley Sunday”; the group’s first No. 1, “Last Train to Clarksville”; its 1986 comeback hit “That Was Then, This Is Now,” and its biggest hit, “I’m a Believer.”

And Dolenz’s voice was largely the same as he sang all of those, as the crowd sang along, with little break between. Dolenz took one of just two short pauses to note the February death of the band’s other lead singer, Davy Jones – “he was like my brother,” Dolenz said – and introduce a two-song tribute to him.

Dolenz sang the originally-Jones-voiced “Daydream Believer” – The Monkees only No. 1 not sung by Dolenz – and “A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You,” which went to No. 2, as the crowd clapped and sang along.

The fact that Dolenz’s voice fit those songs well enforced the other reason Dolenz paused in his set: To explain that The Monkees’ hits were written by some of the top songwriters in pop history: Neil Diamond, Carole King and the team of Boyce and Hart.

And while The Monkees certainly had their appeal, that’s likely the reason those songs have survived so well. Before his closing “I’m a Believer,” Dolenz picked out a kid in the crowd to tell them he sang it long before its used in the Disney movie “Shrek” in 2001.

And he’s right, he did. But it’s the song, not his version, which is still being discovered anew.

The rest of the Happy Together Tour show was surprisingly good, as well.

The Buckinghams’s six-song, 25-minute opening set contained all its hits – “Don’t You Care,” “Hey Baby, They’re Playing Our Song,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Susan.” They also sang The Outsiders’ hit “Time Won’t Let Me,” on which lead singer Carl Giammarese played a good guitar solo.

Giammarese’s voice had held up very well, too – as has that of bassist Nick Fortuna, who sang lead on a couple of the set’s six songs.

The group’s music, like The Monkees’, always had a more middle-of-the road appeal, and that’s also likely why it has held up so well. Giammarese noted that The Buckinghams’ closing song, “Kind of a Drag,” knocked The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” out of the No. 1 spot back in 1967.

The Grass Roots, with the death of lead singer Rob Grill on the day the band played at Musikfest Café in July 2011, has no original members, but its 23-minute set showed how strong its hits – five of which the band played – remain.

And the group, while essentially a cover band, won the crowd over by investing a lot into its performance. The opening “I’d Wait a Million Years” was earnest, as was “Sooner or Later.” And an a cappella intro to “Let’s Live for Today” was especially nice. Guitarist Dusty Hanvey played a surprisingly heavy/hard guitar solo during it.

Lead singer/bassist Mark Dawson is no Grill, but he clearly had reverence for the songs, and showed it on the closing “Temptation Eyes” and “Midnight Confessions.”

Gary Puckett of The Union Gap was the show’s weak point. His opened with “Lady Willpower,” immediately showing he voice badly diminished. Puckett tried to compensate by over-singing every one of his seven songs in a 30-minute set – he way oversang “This Girl is a Woman Now.”

But the songs rescued him, and the crowd was singing along to “Young Girl” and gave a big cheer for “Woman, Woman.” But with such an appreciative crowd, it was notable that Puckett was the only act not to get a standing ovation.

The closing headliners, Flo and Eddie of The Turtles, gave their usual fun, goofy set, playing six of their hits in a 35-minute turn. Just as the last time the tour came through, they came out dressed as Lady Gaga singing “Bad Romance” before asking, “what have they done to our music, man?”

The group’s songs – “She’d Rather Be With You,” “Nobody But You,” “You Showed Me” and “Eleanor” -- also have held up extremely well. It also was indicative of the songs’ writing talent: Their hit “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” was a Bob Dylan song, after all.

The seven-minute encore brought each act back out to reprise a minute of its biggest hit.

And Dolenz again got the biggest response for “(Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”

Based on the many many people trying to find tickets outside , the Sands Event Center really screwed up in not booking this show. Nice to see people actually at a show who paid for tickets , not like at the Sands were they are giving away 500+ tickets each night. Wonder how long the 3 Stooges , who are running the Events Center, have left. I think the Sands will eventually (and should) take over the entire operation.

Posted By: act123 | Jul 31, 2012 11:23:32 PM

"And while The Monkees certainly had their appeal, that’s likely the reason those songs have survived so well. Before his closing “I’m a Believer"
You are correct , very good songs , but no doubt the Monkees had something special, a couple of their biggest hits bombed when 1st released by the songwriters, Dolenz had the ideal voice for 60's AM radio , his vocals are just very likeable , it was impossible to turn the station when you heard him sing. Jones (RIP) , had some of the most sincere vocals heard on AM radio at the time, it was easy to believe , he meant every word he sang. Nesmith also had an uncanny knack for deciding which way to take the recordings , esp. from the 3rd lp on. And Tork was a very gifted musician. This put togther band turned out to better then most of their "organic" counterparts of the era

Posted By: act123 | Jul 31, 2012 11:33:47 PM

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.